CHANDIGARH: The Indian diplomat expelled by Canada after PM Justin Trudeau claimed "credible" allegations linking India to the killing of a wanted pro-Khalistan terrorist is a 1997-batch IPS officer of the Punjab cadre with a stint in RAW before his appointment as joint secretary in the ministry of external affairs in December 2018.Pavan Kumar Rai, a native of UP's Barabanki, served as SSP in Moga, Jalandhar and the border district of Tarn Taran after handling assignments as SP (City-1) of Amritsar, SP (City-1) of Jalandhar and SP (CID) in Amritsar.
He was sent on central deputation to RAW on July 1, 2010.
Colleagues in Punjab - three of his batchmates hold positions of the rank of additional DGP - remember him as "a fair and upright officer".Long before Rai's controversial expulsion from Canada, the country had apparently been denying visas to serving and retired police and paramilitary personnel with stints in J-K and Punjab during the militancy years.The Canadian high commission twice denied a visa to ex-Patiala SSP Ranbir Singh Khatra - in 2008 and 2009 - on the ground that he was with Punjab Police during the heyday of terrorism in the state in the 1980s and 90s."You are at the very least wilfully blind to the crime against humanity committed by the Punjab Police in Amritsar district.
During investigation, arrest and interrogation in your posting, you may have been directly involved, or at the very least helped in increasing the effectiveness of Punjab Police in Amritsar at the time when a large number of police forces in the area were involved in commission of crime against humanity," the mission had said.Retired IPS officer Rajan Gupta was also denied a visa by Canada on similar grounds.
After working in Punjab, he was appointed director general of the Bureau of Police Research and Development in New Delhi on central deputation.In 2009, Canada denied a tourist visa to now-retired Punjab Police Service officer Paramjit Singh Khaira, stating that he was "ineligible to enter Canada because you were deemed to be a member of an inadmissible class of persons, as described in paragraph 35 (1) (a) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act".
This clause pertains to barring the entry of people who have engaged in "systematic or gross human rights violations, or genocide, a war crime or a crime against humanity".The Canadian authorities also denied visas to former CRPF DIG R S Gill and Tejinder Singh Dhillon, who retired as IG in 2010, alleging that the paramilitary force committed "widespread and systematic human rights abuses".